Drivers warned about bad language

"Formula 1 drivers have been told not to swear during media interviews. Governing body the FIA issued the demand after both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen swore, live on air, while on the podium after last Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix."http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/20253052

Can't say I was massively paying attention during the interviews. What did Räikkönen and Vettel say?

Drivers do need to be warned about bad language in live broadcasts if they are letting it slip. I wouldn't have complained myself but support a warning going out to them because its not really what people wish to hear in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. If you are watching it with your kids and they look to these guys as role models, its not something that is comfortable to explain to the innocent.

Anyway, to answer the question: Kimi said people 'gave him shit' for apparently not being happy after winning a race - I guess he was referring to Spa in 2009. I don't know what Vettel came up with, as by then I had already switched off the TV.

There'll be a day when audio processing on television sets is good enough that it'll bleep out the words as they come through (delayed by a fraction of a second). But I think Kimi might be retired by then. Vettel will likely still be driving.

I couldn't believe the amount of people complaing about this when I seen it mentioned on a Facebook post by a F1 page. Seriously there are a lot more important things out there then getting upset by drivers using swear words.

There'll be a day when audio processing on television sets is good enough that it'll bleep out the words as they come through (delayed by a fraction of a second). But I think Kimi might be retired by then. Vettel will likely still be driving.

In case Räikkönen is still around, he's got a fair chance to trick the automation with his mumbling.

Absolute nonsense. In a world where the internet makes everything from hardcore pornography to snuff movies available to kids, that people think a driver saying sh*t or fu*k on live TV is going to corrupt their children's morals is just preposterous. Doubly hypocritical coming from F1, one of the most unethical sports around. More swearing from the drivers, I say!

There'll be a day when audio processing on television sets is good enough that it'll bleep out the words as they come through (delayed by a fraction of a second). But I think Kimi might be retired by then. Vettel will likely still be driving.

I come from a country where, well, we don't make such a fuss of these things and, of course, don't beep anything. And each time I watch something in English, the only thing the beep achieves, in my case, is to make me pay more attention to the swearing instead of taking it away. It's like a loud "hey, hey! here there was a swearing word, can you guess which one it was?"

Not everyone watching a race is a 40 year old single man polishing his miniature grand prix car collection getting turned on by his hero saying a swear word we need to remember. I laughed when they swore but am mature enough to know it wasn't appropriate for the time it was transmitted. If its shown on the highlights at 11.3opm then fair enough. We have a water shed period of 9pm in the UK for such things. I don't see a problem with the FIA just reminding drivers of their etiquette on the podium. Its no big deal really

I have a theory: When English is not our main language we give less importance to swering. I've notice that on Vettel. Oh, and how about ending those pathetic podium interviews?

In Vettel's case I think he is influenced by american pop culture. When he is talking he is using slang words I would not connect with typical british english. Perhaps I am wrong as non native but I met a lot of american guys and they used the f-bomb all over the place

Anyway, to answer the question: Kimi said people 'gave him shit' for apparently not being happy after winning a race - I guess he was referring to Spa in 2009. I don't know what Vettel came up with, as by then I had already switched off the TV.

Seb said something about starting from the back there was plenty of potential "to f*ck up".

Can see why FIA want to discourage such language but really in most European countries such language (or what Kimi said) is no problem at all on TV even on Sunday afternoon.The UK is a bit special though about that, really 21 written complaints WTF

Politeness is so out of fashion nowadays you only look cool if you swear in any kind of casual talk. A lot. Then you get used to it and lose any sense of what politeness is or means, so you start swearing in front of unknown audiences of whomever may be watching or hearing. You just don't care.

Then one day you are a father and your son tells you to "**** off". And you do **** off as you are told, probably because you have no authority remaining on the "swearing is rude an unpolite, therefore forbidden at home" policy. Most probably, you told him yourself to "**** off" more than once.

I didn't take the swearing bit too seriously, but then again, English is not my native language, so I don't give a **** about my kids hearing that from their idols. I guess it's the same with Finnish or Japanese swearing. If António Felix da Costa, however, one day gets to F1, gets on a podium and says the equivalent portuguese "F" word up there ... then I'll be sure to send him a letter.

My reaction to the swearing was that they both did it because Coulthard was conducting the interview. They were playing a prank on a mate, putting him on the spot, live in front of a worldwide audience.

I don't have a problem with it personally, but I can understand that some people do and I regard F1 as family viewing - I certainly watched with my dad from a young age! Its naive to think children don't hear this language either at home or in the playground from about 4 years old, but I can see why the authorities might have a quiet word as some people would prefer not to hear swearing and good manners are free. From F1's point of view, they are going to Abu Dhabi to break F1 into new territories, some of which are pretty 'conservative' - not everyone has the same set of standards, and even if you find swearing on daytime TV fine, F1 wants to grow new audiences and sponsors, not risk offending people.

I also thought Seb was being a little bit naughty on purpose in that he has done enough TV speaking in English to know what a 'bad' is. The thought did pass my mind that this could be the drivers way of saying they don't really want to do live interviews on the podium. They've all done enough press conferences etc without swearing to know how they are 'expected' to speak.

On the other hand, I have no time for people who actually pick up the phone to complain about something as minor as this. Its not as if the BBC had any control over it, and there are plenty worse things that children are exposed to by mainstream TV, like aggresive advertising, increasingly sexualised images etc.

This is a whole other debate. Words can, have been and still are used to humiliate, denigrate and discriminate against people. There's a very obvious example of a word beginning with N which, if an interview used to criticize a black driver on TV, would certainly cause offense. And justifiably so.

Kimi said "last time you guys been giving me shit cause i didn't laugh"Vettel said "..there was a chance to **** it up [the race] but we didn't.."

I could be alone on this, but surely this is language which should not be used at any time, not just "sometimes". If you never use it, than no amount of adrenaline will make you to say that. Kimi actually is getting pretty comfortable WITH this in public. (Remember interview at Spa 2012). I am not overly sensitive person, but this is undoubtedly wrong. Just as calls for “free speech” (read unrestricted, or non-corporate) are wrong, because we aren’t always right, we do not always think before we speak, and there is certain responsibility for drivers to preserve decorum.There has to be some clean place to go, and feel good. I thought that Michael’s wardrobe hit boundary a few times with me, and now this. I am not sure why FiA is getting involved instead families and team bosses, but someone has to.

So firstly they say that drivers are robots, cause they have set speeches mostly etc, and now thye whine about swearing?Sweet god, kids at age of 12 swear more than them in my country. actually they might know more curses than I lol.

+ a driver that just raced for 2h with average speed of 220+- is definetly calm as ****. It is pretty normal that he has insane amounts of adrenaline and he can throw a curse or two. And in the end, they are not native speakers, and they sometimes might forget how to replace a word and doesnt want to repeat the same word over and over again like "Car was bad, balance was bad, setup was bad", They can just say "Car was bad and we ****ed up setup"

Actually I'd like them to throw even more curses and broadcast all radio.

So firstly they say that drivers are robots, cause they have set speeches mostly etc, and now thye whine about swearing?Sweet god, kids at age of 12 swear more than them in my country. actually they might know more curses than I lol.

+ a driver that just raced for 2h with average speed of 220+- is definetly calm as ****. It is pretty normal that he has insane amounts of adrenaline and he can throw a curse or two. And in the end, they are not native speakers, and they sometimes might forget how to replace a word and doesnt want to repeat the same word over and over again like "Car was bad, balance was bad, setup was bad", They can just say "Car was bad and we ****ed up setup"

Actually I'd like them to throw even more curses and broadcast all radio.

Unless they speak like that:

Would you tell a mate to **** off if he did something to annoy you? I would.

Would you tell your mother to **** off if she had irritated you?

Its a bit of a straw man argument to say that if drivers aren't constantly swearing then they are being forced into being corporate robots. I'm able to maintain my personality without swearing at my boss. I don't think a huge deal is being made of this, a few cranks complained to the BBC and the sport has had a quiet word with drivers to remind them how to behave in front of a mixed global audience. Thats all.

Would you tell a mate to **** off if he did something to annoy you? I would.

Would you tell your mother to **** off if she had irritated you?

Its a bit of a straw man argument to say that if drivers aren't constantly swearing then they are being forced into being corporate robots. I'm able to maintain my personality without swearing at my boss. I don't think a huge deal is being made of this, a few cranks complained to the BBC and the sport has had a quiet word with drivers to remind them how to behave in front of a mixed global audience. Thats all.

Well for me they can drop a f-bomb form time to time. ofcourse marathon of f-bombs would be just silly and really in bad taste. It is just, why the heck after like "shit" whcih one is rather not that bad word (at least for me), and 1x f-bomb they already are warned about language lol

Drivers swearing on the radio is understandable. Drivers swearing when angry is also understandable. Swearing for the sake of it, like we heard in the podium interviews- kind of weak. Even footballers can give interviews straight after a match without swearing.